Chessmaster or Fritz 12

I got Fritz 12 not long ago and im kinda ticked off at it. Its not user friendly and i hate the interfce as well as the fact that after quite a while using it it hasnt affected or improved my level of play one bit, in fact it frustrates me. Its not straightforward and simple and it doesnt offer much to help you actually improve other than good game analysis. So people who have the recent versions of Chessmaster tell me if you think it would be better

im a round 1500 player i to dont like fritz. for me chessmaster is the best you can get good teaching lessions. and get different types of games from made up rated players. plus on amerson you can get chessmaster grandmaster for a very low price  good luck mate.

Welcome to the world of chess software!

Yeah, I guess if Fritz is too hard for you to navigate, switch to Chessmaster. Chessmaster is alot easier to navigate, like a kid's game. It is cheap and will probably be better for you for now.

I have Fritz 8. It was difficult to use and didn't seem to work right. I took it off my computer. Five months ago bought Shredder 12 UCI. It's great. May not have all the bells & whistles of the new Fritz, but it's straightforward, easy to use, and analyzes as deep as 20 ply on my five-year-old computer. I've never used Chessmaster.

Addendum to my post above re Shredder.  I have the version downloaded directly from shredderchess.com, not the one with the Fritz interface that Chessbase distributes.

I learned a fair bit from Chessmaster on xbox a few years ago, and the interface was pretty sweet for a chess opponent.

Now I use Fritz 12 as sort of a study sandbox to explore ideas, figure out where I screwed up in a game I just played, produce notation, etc.

I generally prefer human opponents, but find Shredder very nice. I favor it slightly over Chessmaster, although each has its merits.

The other thing i hate about Fritz is its all numbers and variations. Like if you want to analyze a game all it can do is give you variations in notation and it doesnt tell you why. It doesnt actually tell you how to play better its just a bunch of letters and numbers you know?

I have both. The Chessbase software is far superior but as many people have said elsewhere already, it is not the most user friendly of beasties. Mind you, I don't see any option in Chesmaster to make custom opponents to play against. That is, if this is why you purchased the software; for an always willing opponent to beat up on.

I've actually spent the last month playing nothing but Chessmaster (around 200+ 30min games). It is just as useless at playing like a human as any other software. You know, the obligatory blunder every so many moves but playing at full strength the rest of the game. It is what it is.

I much prefer Fritz for analysis and especially love being able to store my games in a database for later review. Personally, I really like the ability to create a custom database and populate it with a representative sample of positions to study and rehearse with the engine of your choice (say, a database populated with typical endgame positions, for example).

All other things being equal, I like Chessmaster and will continue to use it as the mood suits, but it is a mere toy when compared with Fritzie. And like Steve 212000 said, that massive database full of beautiful games to ponder and learn from! :o

I do understand your frustration however and am thinking that perhaps an answer is to play more humans; using the software for rehearsal and analysis and review.

My advice, stick with Fritz and write yourself the occasional note on how to use the last cool feature that you discovered and now know how to use.

Good luck with it all.

 Thanks, but I really hate Fritz. Its so un- userfriendly that its pretty worthless to a person like me. Its complicated and so in depth while also having a (in my opinion) terrible interface. Is chessmaster simpler to use?

lol, sorry to be of so little help :B

but yeah, Chessmaster is pretty straight-forward. User interface is quite friendly with everything being quite easy to find. You don't need to read the manual to use it, just install and play, so yeah, I think I can safely say it is simple to use. 

Hmmm ... you may want to have a look at this program: 

http://lucaschess.host22.com/

If Chessmaster's play is to make a blunder here and there and play full strenght for the rest of the game; how does Fritz play if you put it on a 'weaker' strength?

Fritz might be better, but I don't want to play against a super computer whom I never beat and even beats most grandmasters. I've read even Chessmaster can only be beat by grandmasters on full strenght. Why would the average chess player need a stronger engine to play against if the weaker engine is still too strong for 90% of the chess players?

If you want to play against a computer, buy Shredder. Or download the trial version which is free. You can tell it the ELO strength you want it to play at, from 850 up to big numbers. It's much more fun than playing against ChessMaster's pseudo opponents, in my opinion.  

fritz is more for the serious player, offering many neat features and aftermarket support, such as video trainers.  chessmaster is good, too, and probably more your speed.

i have both and like both.

Ok. I will first finish the lessons of Chessmaster and after that I'm gonna look for Shredder. I've red that Classic Shredder and Shredder 12 play differently than Deep Shredder 12 and/or the chessbase Shredder? Or is Deep Shredder on 850 elo strenght the same as Classic Shredder on 850?

As an aside, Shredder Classic on my linux laptop rates me higher than Shredder on my android phone, which bloodies my nose and sneers at me.

 Get both. Chessmaster is visually fascinating. I love the way, they have made Chess personalities, like Kasparov, Anand and Kramnik, which you can play against in the program. To be fair, I would rather play against a GM, even if the GM exists in a program, and not in life. There are many other good features of Chessmaster(the Grandmaster Edition.) The famous games which you can study, are very numerous. And they are famous, you don't have to wonder about that, even though all GM games, are GM games. I love Chessmaster, and I would first buy that program. I would have first tried Chessmaster, before Fritz, as I did. Fritz is for those who want to use a program, even though one has to learn to do so. You will love Chessmaster, and be impressed by Fritz. You realize the great values of Fritz as a program, when you have used it for some time. After you start using Fritz, you learn progressively a little more about its operation, as you use it. One is overwhelmed that one cannot use the program as it should be, and one tries new avenues. The printed manual, doesn't leave much to the imagination, but it is far from exhaustive. Fritz should have a full function manual. It is easy to take for granted, that Fritz has a certain 'character' in it's playing function. I sometimes know what Fritz will play, as the next move. If Fritz and Chessmaster are easily available, then I would recommend them. Both the programs are easily available in India, but it took an effort to come to know this.

All my playing strength comes from Chess Master, not from playing the personalities, but from just the academy lessons alone.

I'd highly recommend going through the entire course, including the ''Art of Learning" course, if it is included in your version of CM.

I'd also recommend going through the whole thing more than once, I've done it about 3 times and I'm still learning lots of stuff I missed the first couple of times.. It's the closest thing you will get to having a GM give you lessons, and doesn't cost you anything.

Don't neglect other training material such as books, or even this site.. I tend to mix it up with Chess mentor and Chess Master academy lessons, which is a powerful combination.